February 01, 2015A PRAYER IN THE DARK

Mark 1:29-39

Preface to the Word

The opening chapter of Mark’s gospel is only 45 verses long, but by the end of the chapter, Jesus’ fame has spread like wildfire. Mark doesn’t have a birth narrative like Matthew and Luke, so the inaugural event in Jesus’ life and ministry washis baptism by John in the Jordan River. Then he was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for a time of testing and sorting things out. Mark doesn’t say much about that, either... only that Jesus was in the wilderness forty days and was tempted by Satan.

Jesus then came north to Galilee after John the Baptizer was arrested and started preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

He called some fishermen to be his disciples, went to the synagogue in Capernaum where we taught and healed a man possessed by a demon and, by verse 28 of chapter 1, Mark wrote: “At once his fame spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.”

Right away, Jesus was a big hit with the people!

They left the synagogue and went to Simon Peter’s house, where Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, and by sundown, the official end of the Sabbath observance, people were crowded around Peter’s house trying to get to this miracle-working rabbi. There were so many who were sick, so many plagued with unclean spirits. If we want to believe Mark, the “whole city” was pushing and shoving around the front door. The kingdom of God program was hitting a chord with the people. Jesus was an instant phenomenon.

Before the sun came up the next morning, Jesus slipped out in the dark to do some praying. When the others woke up and found him missing, they hunted him down. And when they found him, they told him “Everyone is searching for you, Jesus.” You’re the man. They love you. Isn’t this great?

Jesus had an interesting response to all this. Let’s listen as this section of the Mark’s first chapter is read to us…

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:29-39

SermonI.

  1. So Jesus goes to a quiet place to pray in the dark of the early morning. His disciples hunt him down to tell him“Everyone is searching for you.” What is Jesus’ response? Right! He says, in essence, “It’s time to move on. I came to get out the message and there are a lot of people who still need to hear it. I'm going to do what I came out to do.”
  2. It’s an amazing thing to me, really. Nearly every congregation I’ve known and served, including this one, dreams of the kind of success Jesus had in Galilee. Going about what we believe God wants us to do, we salivate over these descriptions of people flocking to the door, clamoring for the healing touch of Jesus. And as those healed, blessed and restored people keep coming back to our church, we plan on having nice and functional facilitiesto accommodate them, where we can worship and learn and fellowship (and when that facility becomes too small for the crowd, we’ll add on more room or build another building). And our hearts quicken as we envision busy committees of grateful people figuring out how to bring others to the healing touch of Jesus, and adding more staff to lead the flock into life-changing service, and an ever-expanding budget to meet the costs of this faithful ministry.

Jesus was having the kind of success we dream of, the kind of success that follows on the heels of life changing preaching and healing and compassion.

  1. The problem is “success” can be so seductive, and power... well we know about power, even the power used for good. Power is addictive. Over and over again the church has had to struggle with the difficult truth that even though we are formed by the miraculous power of God to heal and make whole, success can pervert that power into something that is self-serving and controlling. Success seduces.
  2. We’re still in chapter one of Mark – the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. A few verses back from the story read today, Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. True to form, Mark doesn’t give us the details. Matthew and Luke fill that out that scene a little more for us.
  3. Remember how the Tempter came to Jesus in the wilderness and tried to entice Jesus to turn the stones into bread to feed himself? Use God’s power for your own benefit!
  4. Remember how the Tempter took Jesus to a high tower and told him to jump off, forcing God to come to his rescue and prove how special he was. Use God’s power to impress others!
  5. Remember how the Tempter took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain and showed him the splendor of all the kingdoms of the world. “These are yours, Jesus. Yours! You deserve them. All you have to do is walk my wide and popular path, follow my lead. Imagine what you can do with the power that I can give you to rule.”

Remember?

  1. And here we are, just a few verses latter, and it’s as though Jesus is undergoing the second temptation. Your fame is spreading, Jesus. You are becoming really popular. People are flocking to your doorstep. Everyone is searching for you, Jesus.
  2. You and I would probably huddle together to begin planning how we could build on this wonderful success. We would want to keep this good thing going. We would want to work on publicity to get the word out, figure out how we could best deliver to the customer what they wanted, how we should organize the Kingdom program so it doesn’t get out of our control and wisely use the resources we think we have.
  3. But what does Jesus do?

The first thing Jesus does is to go off to a deserted, quiet place to pray. With the lure of success and the tug of fame, Jesus’ instinct was to pray. He was always praying. In order to faithfully do what he came out to do, he knew he had to pray.

  1. According to Matthew, when the Tempter was after Jesus in the wilderness, each time Jesus answered the temptation with God. It is written...
  • “Life comes not from bread but from the word of God.”
  • “Don’t try to lead God. Follow God’s lead.”
  • “Worship the Lord your God and God only. Serve God with absolute single-heartedness.”
  1. Prayer is the lifeline that kept his head on straight, kept his absolute loyalties clear, kept his spirit in line with God’s spirit. With success luring him in, Jesus drew apart for prayer so his heart would stay clear and so he would do what it was God sent him to do.

II.

  1. This church is a “successful” church in so many ways. I find myself constantly amazed by the strengths, boldness and vitality of this congregation. We are successful in meeting our mission and ministry goals. We are successful in the eyes of the community. We are successful in attracting new people. We are successful financially. And we are a congregation that has many successful people within it.
  2. But along with success… and for us to even grasp what “success” means in the church, we have got to be a praying church. In fact, the more successful we are, the more critical it is that we are a praying church and a praying people. Success is seductive. It is so easy to slip from serving the Lord God, and God alone, to serving our own self-interests under our own power and scheming.
  3. I recall when the core staff of another church I served as pastor read and reflected together on the book Waking to God’s Dreamwritten by The Rev Dick Wills. It was written when Wills was the pastor of a church in Florida and before he was elected as a United Methodist bishop. The book is autobiographical, about Wills as a pastor who was on the success track, leading his church down the success track, and getting burned out and disillusioned along the way. He and his church discovered what Jesus knew – that joy, vision, hope, and life-changing power flows from prayer.
  4. So Wills’ developed a routine that I recommend we all consider. The first step he took was tomake the commitment to get up an hour before his day actually began. That hour is for prayer, for going off to a quiet place to commune with God.
  5. To prepare for prayer, he reads the Bible and devotional material. When he is ready for prayer, he follows an old prayer pattern called A.C.T.S., which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We’ve talked about this type of prayer before, but let’s review how it works.

Adoration. In the adoration part of the prayer, he tries to remind himself whom he is addressing in prayer and into whose presence he has entered. This is a time for praise, often using the words of a song or a psalm.

Confession. During confession, he tries to name the things in his life that have worked to separate him from God over the last twenty-four hours. Confession is a soul-cleansing process thatleads to the experience of a forgiving God.

Thanksgiving. In the thanksgiving part of the prayer, he thanks God for all that is good in his life and the ways in which God is at work in the world.

Finally, there is Supplication. Supplication simply means to ask or plead for something earnestly or humbly.Wills uses the supplication time to presenting to God his requests, believing that nothing is too big for God to handle or too small for God to care about.

  1. Always Wills’ prayer is this: “God, help me be a part of what you are blessing.” I hear this sentiment as an echo of the prayer Jesus prayed in the deserted place on that early morning while it was still very dark.

“God, what is it you want to bless and how am I a part of it?”

That’s the prayer of a Christian and the prayer of a faithful congregation.

God, help me be a part of what you are blessing. And when it becomes clear to me what that is, grant me the strength to follow.

  1. I heard Wills speak at a workshop once and I can clearly remember him saying this...“You can’t share what you don’t have.” We can’t share with others a relationship with God if we ourselves don’t have a relationship with God. And we don’t have a relationship with God unless we take time to pray. Worship is important, but it’s not enough. Giving money is important, but it is not enough. Serving on a committee, volunteering for community service, or working for justice is important, but it is not enough. Maintaining a magnificent building is needed, but it is not enough.
  2. What you and I have to share with others ultimately streams from the heart of God, and by regularly getting on his knees to pray, Jesus shows us how we get to know God’s heart. Try to imagine Jesus functioning without prayer. Why would a church or a disciple not follow him into prayer?

III.

  1. Right now, there are five people from this church who are joining me in the six-month congregation leadership development training. This is the third group we’ve sent to these trainings, which are designed to help churches focus on the things that will make them healthy and vital. (Most people interpret that as, “how can we get bigger.”) Every time we meet, we have a few moments called “Spiritual Development” because we have come to see that “You can’t share what you don’t have,” and the church’s leadership can’t lead the church into spiritual health and vitality if they themselves aren’t growing spiritually. Spiritual leadership requires a clear sense of personal mission. Having this clarity empowers spiritual leaders with both the courage to say,“yes” to the way of faithfulness and to say,“no” to distractions. And it relies on prayer and knowing the heart of God.
  2. In addition to that, your church council is having its first meeting of the year a week from tomorrow. This group of leaders is responsible for being clear about the church’s mission and vision and values and staying faithful to them. We will be praying that God will help us and our church be a part of what God is blessing. And when it becomes clear to us what that is, that God will grant us the strength to follow.

Your church council needs your prayers. Your pastor needs your prayers. Your staff needs your prayers. The world around us needs your prayers. Your brothers and sisters in Christ need your prayers. You need your prayers! Whether it’s the ACTS form of prayer or some other that works better for you. To be clear about and true to the path of Christian discipleship, we must be constantly praying that God will help each of us – all of us – to be a part of what God wants to bless here in this community and around the world. And, like Jesus, we need the wisdom, the strength, and the faith to let go of those things that tempt and distract, seduce and detour us from what God wants us to do or going where God wants us to go.

  1. Let’s be praying. Together. Alone. In times of decision-making, in the face of fear, in the midst of success. When times are good or when we are full of stress.

“God, help me a part of what you want to bless. Help Roseburg’s First United Methodist Churchand its people be a part of what it is you want to bless. And give us the courage to obey.”

Can you give me an “Amen?”